WIP-Wednesday

The U.S. Postal Service has just done for my bank account what countless resolutions and notes to self has not be able to do: put a stop to my constant fabric buying. Well, I don’t know yet that that will be the case, but the cost for flat rate shipping from the US to Canada is about to go up from $12.99 to $19.99. Which, holy christ on a cracker. See, I’ve bought a lot of fabric from the US because it’s been cheaper, even including shipping, to buy it online than to buy it up here. But the cheaper part of the equation is not going to hold any longer. I could just shift more of my fabric buying to Canadian fabric shops (I already buy a fair bit from Mad About Patchwork), but I’ve never found the same variety from Canadian sellers as you find from American ones. And that’s mainly just because there are less Canadians, thus a smaller market, thus fewer people selling to us, but also because many of these shops are quite small, they only bring in a handful of the fabric lines that are out there at any given moment.

So, sorry American fabric sellers! But if I’m going to be spending more, I might as well spend more on the fabric and less on the shipping, and get it in one week rather than two. So, uh, know any good Canadian online fabric sellers? (Other than the aforementioned Mad About Patchwork.) I don’t need the links, or maybe my bank account doesn’t need them, but I wouldn’t mind to have a bigger pool to work from, anyway!

Anyway, this is meant to be a work-in-progress report.

I’d like to report that nothing is in progress because I’d finished everything I’d planned over the holidays, but ahahahahahaahaha. No.

I haven’t finished my Vintage Modern Wonky Stars quilt yet.

It looks exactly like it looks in this picture, except that it’s folded up and sitting on the futon, waiting for me to get around to finishing it. What needs finishing? I need to finish quilting the borders, the weird bit between the star points and some kind of fill for the centres of the stars. If I could focus, I could get the quilting done in a day. (I work nights this weekend, though, so probably I won’t work on it until next week. Hopefully I’ll find some time on Sunday afternoon though.) After that, I just need to cut out, stitch on, and sew down my binding. I enjoy binding, so I look forward to getting that far along…

Otherwise, the only things I needed to finish over the last week were two blocks for various exchanges. I’ve done that! Go me!

This block was for my Simply Solids bee, of which I’m a member of the Aeneous group:

LethargicLass requested this asterisk block, for which she sent out a fairly random selection of four squares and four thin strips, which I could put together any which way I pleased. It was a really fun block to put together, and it turned out really fantastically, I thought.

This second block was for my Birthday Blocks group on Livejournal:

Amanda (or APhoenixRain) requested leaf blocks (Maple Leaf in this case) in autumn colours. I chose this kind of fantastic feather print which I wish I had more of (but don’t even have a selvage so can’t track down to see if there were other colours…). (Wait. Did I say something about buying less fabric?) This was a simple but fun block to pull together.

After that, I also made two blocks for myself, kind of sample blocks, I guess, for my Birthday Blocks and Simply Solids bee groups to see.

In both groups I’m requesting Churn Dash blocks in solids. For the bee, I’ll be sending away pairings of fabric, but for the BB group, the others can make blocks in whatever solid colours they want. With hopefully a preference toward brighter colours. I say that, though, but I made these blocks specifically to show that not have “bright” solids doesn’t mean having a dour looking block – this is a kind of celery, almost pastel green with a charcoal, but I think they elevate one another to make the colours pop. If that celery had been paired with a another dusty or muted colour, the whole thing would have fallen flat, I think.

Anyway, the plan for next week is just to get back to the finishing the Vintage Modern quilt. I’m not due to get anything else made before early February (another Birthday Blocks block or two, but I’m waiting on fabrics for those), so it’s just that quilt that needs to be finished!

Thanks! Those blocks are all pretty different – the very modern asterisk, the very traditional maple leaf (fabrics and style) and the sorta-updated traditional churn dash. I really like working with a mix of things, so these bees should keep me changing things up 😀

I laughed at your comments about USPS shipping costs, because it is so exactly how I feel. All my solids come from Mad About Patchwork, but have you seen Architextures? Pearl Bracelets? I won’t be able to restrain myself. I love your blocks, and the wonky Stars is gorgeous, beautiful colours too.

Yeah, I know! There are so many fabrics I’d thought to myself, “well, January is a bad time, I’ll just wait till February or March and get them…” So much for that! Sigh. I wish I could remember where I’d seen a complete bundle of the FQs of the pearl bracelet prints, and thank goodness I already bought Salt Water…

Holy crap, that’s a HUGE jump in price! Frick!
I’m glad I grouped everyone geographically then. Sorry, I don’t have any suggestions on Canadian QSs, I was getting a newsletter from Hamel’s (in Chilliwack, BC) but I’m not sure of their selection.
I hope you find a great supplier 🙂
x
Erin

2 weeks? I’m jealous. For me, things often take at least 3 weeks and up to a month. It’s ridiculous, so I’ve been sticking with Mad About Patchwork as much as possible. I also try to look for US shops that have tiered shipping (charging you based on how much you buy, instead of just with the flat rate envelope, regardless of how little you buy).

I’m really hoping this this will give a few Canadians the incentive to start online shops and a few Canadian shops to stock more modern fabric (I found the fabric on a lot of Canadian shops to be not quite my taste).

For now, I’m trying to minimize what I buy from the US, which means that I’ll be using a lot of solids, unless something really fabulous comes along (I’m willing to dish out the shipping cost if it’s a fabulous print/collection/sale).

Oh really? For some reason things take almost exactly 2 weeks to arrive here, unless there is a holiday on one side of the border or the other. If something were shipped to me on the 14th, it pretty well always arrives on the 28th (or whatever). Except for some reason I get mail from Chicago exceptionally fast, sometimes closer to a week instead. (A friend and I speculate that there’s a wormhole open between here and there because clearly USPS and CanadaPost aren’t responsible.) We must have one of the main mail sorting facilities nearby or something.

Yeah, my biggest problem with a lot of Canadian shops that I’ve found is that there’s still pretty heavily into the tiny florals and dusty colours or just… yeah, things that are not to my taste, Civil War reproduction or 30s prints… I’ve been keeping an eye out for Canadian shops, but one of my old favourites has closed down. There’s Sew-Sisters, which has a mix of some stuff I like and some I don’t, though I haven’t bought from them yet. And also FabricSpot, which I also haven’t bought from (quite a lot of great options though). And I’ve changed my etsy setting to search for Canadian shops, and while there are very, very few, there are a few people there selling (at decent prices) from within Canada.

Probably it’ll be better for my budget if I don’t look too hard for Canadian shops and start shopping my stash a little more. (And then, as you say, dish out on shipping if there’s a great sale or a really fantastic collection I want but can’t find here.)